Media Art Platform: CALL FOR BLOGGERS!

the Netherlands Media Art institute will launch the Media Art Platform, a networking website for people active in media art.

For the Media Art Platform, we are looking for practitioners who are, during the course of this year, interested in contributing a (short) weblog about their work. We invite researchers and media artists to submit proposals for a future weblog of a maximum of 10 short posts.
If your proposal is accepted, you will be invited to write the proposed weblog on the Media Art Platform. Each blog post is rewarded with 30 EUR, with a maximum of 300 EUR per contributor (max. 10 postings).

From all submitted proposals, four or five will be selected.

Requirements
- your blog is preferably about practical aspects of your work. Ideally, it should give a unique, ‘behind the scenes’ insight in a working process: the development of an art project, the preparation of a publication or event, a research process...
ideally, the blog is interesting for a large number of people who are active in, or interested in, media art
the blog is written in English
blog posts are short and to-the-point (max. 300 words)
your weblog must be written in the course of a few months between 15 May and 31 December 2009. Please indicate which months or which period are most convenient for you.
you remain the copyright owner of your postings and you are allowed to re-post them on your website or on other platforms, provided that you mention that the writing was commissioned for the Media Art Platform.

We are especially interested in weblogs that show a personal perspective; especially related to the development of (future) art and research projects!

Please submit the following:
* a short proposal for your weblog (max. 300 words)
* your CV and/or biography
* a link to your website (if you have one)
* one or more examples of previous writing

Deadline for submissions: 30 April 2009
Please send your submissions to info at mediaartplatform.nl
Selected/accepted writers will be informed around 15 May.

Making Cultural Clusters: New Strategies for Culture-led Urban (Re)development

Making Cultural Clusters: New Strategies for Culture-led Urban (Re)development

Date: 19 April, 2009 (SUNDAY)

Time: 930am--5pm (Reception starts at 9am)

Venue: Conference Room, 2/F, HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity, 135 Junction Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Map: http://www.creativehk.edu.hk/main/contact/contact_main.php

(the seminar will be conducted in Cantonese)


Organized by the Center for Cultural Studies, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Co-organized by the Department of Comparative Literature, Hong Kong University and the Department of Cultural Studies, Lingnan University
Supported by the Public Policy Research Grant of the Central Policy Unit (HKSAR)
Sponsored by the HKUST School of Humanities and Social Science

Venue sponsored by HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity

Conference Statement:

‘Cultural Cluster’ has become a catchword in recent debates on creative industries and globalization. For artists and stakeholders in the field, the term ‘cultural cluster’ refers to a vibrant and highly diversified community. Unfortunately, the diversity and complexity of ‘cultural clusters’ have not been fruitfully understood by the government, the business sector and the community at large.

In this seminar, the speakers will share with us their observations and views on the ecology of cultural clusters in Hong Kong, and the relationships between cultural clusters, local communities and the city at large. The seminar will be divided into two panels. In panel I, the speakers will share with us the preliminary research findings on three cultural clusters in Hong Kong (i.e. Cattle Depot Artist Village, Central and Sheung Wan, and Wanchai) under the project ‘Making Cultural Clusters: New Strategies for Culture-led Urban Re-development’.

In panel II, scholars, cultural critics and participants in the field will try to evaluate the development of creative industries, cultural policy, and urban (re)development in Hong Kong with reference to the development of local cultural clusters.


Panel One: Case Study

(930am-1230pm)

Moderator: May Fung (Cultural Worker)

Market-led?: Cultural Cluster in Central and Sheung Wan
Yun-Chung CHEN (Assistant Professor, Division of Social Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)

Cultural Thickness: the Possibility of Cultural Cluster Formation in Wanchai
Mirana May SZETO (Assistant Professor, Department of Comparative Literature, Hong Kong University)

Borrowed Place and Borrowed Time: the Case of Cattle Depot Artist Village
Damian CHENG (Postdoctoral Fellow, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)

Model of Cultural Cluster in Fotan Artist Village
Patrick MOK (Consultant(Research Projects), Cheung Kong Centre for Creative Industries)

Commentators:
LEUNG Po-shan, Anthony (Cultural Worker)
Louis YU (CEO, Hong Kong Arts Development Council)

Discussion

(1230-2pm Lunch Break)

Panel II: From Cultural Cluster to West Kowloon Cultural District

(2-5pm)

Moderator: Yun-Chung CHEN

Cultural Landfill: When Creativity becomes Industrialized
Oscar HO (Curator and Cultural Critics)

The Discourse of Cultural Value-Adding
CHAN Wan (Cultural Critics)

Cultural Planning and Creative Cities: Gaps and Blindspots in Local Cultural Policy
Stephen CHAN (Professor and Department Head, Department of Cultural Studies, Lingnan University

Commentator:
Desmond Hui (Professor, Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong)

Discussion
All are welcome! Enquiry: Keith Au (Tel: 9224-2763)

ART AND DESIGN RESIDENCY (NEW DELHI)

The Khoj International Art and Design Residency, in New Delhi, is for practitioners, working at the intersection of art, design and media, who seek to
"push artistic practice beyond convention". Five places are available on the six
week programme during November-December 2009.

Altermodern + ism from Nicolas Bourriaud

Ancient and modern: Gustav Metzger’s Liquid Crystal Environment. The 82-year-old artist has been hailed as the “godfather” of the altermodern by the inventor of the term, Nicolas Bourriaud

via

(The Tate Triennial)...an international show that attempts to define the new art of the post-economic apocalypse, christening it “altermodern”.

It is a new world of “wandering in time, space and mediums”. “Altermodernity,” Bourriaud continues, “arises out of negotiations between different agents from different cultures and geographical locations.”Artists, by this reckoning, have become nomads, a mobile community of outsiders within a vast globalised society, choosing their images, like words, from roughly the same visual language. It’s the next stage, Bourriaud claims, for civilisation after postmodernism, and artists who mocked its own claims to greatness (the people who canned their own poo, put donkeys in art galleries or exhibited their smoked cigarettes).

(Altermodern is at Tate Britain (020 7887 8888, www.tate.org.uk) until 26 April. Open daily 10am-6pm (first Friday of every month until 10pm). Admission £7.80, concs available.)

Eye of the Storm : An interdisciplinary conference on scientific controversy

19 / 20 June 2009
Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1, UK


CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

The Arts Catalyst and Tate Britain announce an international call for artists, scientists, social scientists, theorists, policy-makers and other disciplines, to present in Eye of the Storm, a conference exploring scientific controversy from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Eye of the Storm aims to explore a range of controversies, from esoteric arguments between physicists over the structure of the universe, to disputes about the causes of species decline and climate change, and highly charged public controversies around the use of stem cells and the distribution of genetically modified organisms. When heated debates around the challenge of climate change have shown how abstruse uncertainties within a scientific community can be amplified and distorted to challenge the whole notion of human-caused greenhouse warming, Eye of the Storm sets out to examine the relationship between scientific uncertainty and public controversies around science.

We invite abstracts for papers and proposals for artists’ presentations and talks for Eye of the Storm that consider questions such as the following: When the whole culture and ethic of science is based on disagreement and alternative explanations, how does this essential scientific uncertainty work in the quest for knowledge? How do scientific disputes affect political decision-making and society’s relationship with science? As scientific and technological developments produce their own controversies, such as those around GM crops, what are the current critical controversies in and around science and technology? What alternative societal and cultural perspectives and contributions do artists and social scientists bring to this area? When the influential science sociologist Bruno Latour has worried that social science – in questioning the ‘reality’ that science examines – may have contributed to political abuses of science: what is the relationship between scholarship, science and politics?

Confirmed keynote speakers are Sheila Jasanoff, Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Harvard University, and Roger Malina, astrophysicist, Director of Research at CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research), former Director at the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille.

Submissions

Please send 200-word abstracts for papers and presentations (20 minutes maximum) to conference@artscatalyst.org. You may attach a short biog or cv. Artists may attach images (2MB maximum)

Deadline: 31 March 2009

Submission categories include: talks/papers, artists’ presentations, demonstrations

Selection Committee

Michael Bravo, Senior Lecturer, Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge
Bernadette Buckley, Programme Convenor, MA Art & Politics, Goldsmiths, University of London
Sian Ede, Director of Arts, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Madeleine Keep, Education Department, Tate Britain
Rob La Frenais, Curator, The Arts Catalyst
Roger Malina, Chairman Emeritus, Leonardo, Director of Research, CNRS
Chair: Nicola Triscott, Director, The Arts Catalyst

OPEN ARCHITECTURE DESIGN COMPETITION

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

OPEN ARCHITECTURE DESIGN COMPETITION

ARCTIC PERSPECTIVE INITIATIVE

“MOBILE MEDIA-CENTRIC HABITATION AND WORK UNIT”

First Prize: 5000 EUR
Second Prize: 2500 EUR
Third Prize: 1500 EUR

DEADLINE: 23:59:59 UTC, JULY 1, 2009

The ARCTIC PERSPECTIVE INITIATIVE “MOBILE MEDIA-CENTRIC HABITATION AND WORK UNIT” open architecture design competition is aimed at the submission of proposals for the design of a mobile media-centric facility, life support habitation and work module with renewable energy supply, waste recycling, and communications systems. We invite
proposals from architects, designers, engineers, artists, students, and engineering teams.

The design should be an open source mobile architecture/system/machine capable of functioning in extreme as well as temperate climates and containing mass/industrial and amateur production/ manufacturing potential. The unit is to serve as a model for mobile research within extreme cold environments, with the ability to incorporate high tech solutions while utilizing sustainable resources.

Jury decisions to be published by October 1, 2009.

All winners and honorable mentions will be published in the API Cahier #2 “Architecture”, which will be edited in the Fall/Winter 2009. All winners and honorable mentions will be, among others, also included in exhibitions and presentations in the framework of European Capital of Culture RUHR.2010 as well as the international media-art conference ISEA 2010 RUHR.

Full information and rules and regulations are at: http:// www.arcticperspective.org

For questions please email: design2009@arcticperspective.org

Theo Jansen in Japan

The first exhibition in Asia by one of my favorite Dutch artist Theo Jansen is held from January 17th (Sat) to April 12th (Sun). On display at the specially constructed venue are Jansen's "strandbeests" (beach creatures). These kinetic sculptures have "skeletons" made out of plastic tubes, and mechanisms that harness wind energy to walk and move.

Theo Jansen Exhibition
Venue: Hibiya Patio
Schedule: From 2009-01-17 To 2009-04-12
10:00-21:00 (last entry 20:30)
Address: 1-4-1 Yurakucho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0006

I had shown his Ted Talk video in class and is very much loved by students. However it is very difficult to bring this mechanical(non-electronic) creature to walk on the sands in Hong Kong. The art climate here is just too strident for it.

The Simultan Festival

The Simultan Festival is an annual festival for video, media art, experimental electronic music and a/v projects.
This year's edition runs under the theme Trans:position and will take place on 21-23 May, 2009, in Timisoara, Romania.
The festival wishes to sustain and to stimulate the creative ways of the most modern visions of perceiving and recording the cultural realities in contemporary art.
It presents the current processes and the way in which technology and society give rise to new forms of artistic expression by using the new media.
Based on a different theme every year, the festival presents video art projections, live performances, installations, lectures.

TERMS OF ENTRY
Simultan is open for submissions of innovative works, which use technology in a creative, ingenious way or are based on a peculiar, unusual story.
The applicants can send works which fall in one of the two categories below:
- experimental video
- generative visuals based on sound and image manipulations and motion graphics
Those interested may apply with a maximum number of 2 works; each of them
must not exceed 5 minutes in length.

MORE DETAILS AND APPLICATION FORM HERE:
http://www.simultan.org/en/2009/callforentry.htm

The deadline for submission is: April 10, 2009 (postmark)

DOCUMENTATION
After the event, a DVD/catalogue will be published and documentation will also be available on our website www.simultan.org.
Each of the admitted participants will receive a DVD/catalogue by the end of
2009.

No entry fee!

For additional information please contact: Levente Kozma,
email: simultan@simultan.org
www.simultan.org

Public Lecture III Mechatronic Art & its Cultural Implications

Mechatronics, a portmanteau of 'Mechanics' and 'Electronics', is a platform investigates the possibilities of mechanical-based, tactile and space-related technologies on artistic and cultural practice. It includes robotics art and movable/ mobile sculpture, video/ sound sculpture, etc. Artists started to work with the chosen abstraction from 13th Century in western history and it was deployed in theater performance, sculpture & installation art since then. Leonardo De Vinci and Karel Čapek are two of the most well-known figures.

Annie On Ni Wan, currently a visiting research scholar at Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University, will discuss theoretical background and development in mechatronic art and various art projects as a series of poetic systems, engage in lines of enquiry that result in shared sensations of monumental inter-connectivity.

電子機械學理所當然是「機械學」與「電子學」的「化合物」；並且是一個開闊以機械學為基礎，對空間及觸感有關科技的藝術文化實踐平台。當中包括機械藝術及可動／流動雕刻藝術、錄像／聲音雕刻藝術等。於十三世紀開始，西分藝術家便開闢電子機械學的領域，並引入至舞台表演藝術、雕刻及裝置藝術，而達文西及卡雷尔乃當中代表人物。
香港浸會大學視覺藝術院客座研究學人溫安妮將於講座中闡述電子機械藝術的理論及歷史背景。並以不同的作品作開端，遊走於詩一般和而不同的藝術理論與作品之間的互聯性。

Date: Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Time: 2:30pm - 4:30pm
Location: OEE 603 Activity Room,
Street: Ho Sin Hang Campus, Hong Kong Baptist University
Phone: 23535895
Email: morgan@hkbu.edu.hk

RSVP

social media explained

Still don't know the buzz word?

《誌同志》全球首映暨座談會

日期：二零零九年三月二十一日（星期六）
時間：下午二時三十分至五時三十分
地點：香港中文大學崇基學院李冠春堂（信和樓三樓）
票價：四十元正

《誌同志》影片概述：
中國改革開放30年以來，性別與性傾向議題日益受到關注，男權中心和異性戀霸權正在受到女性主義和多元性取向的挑戰與修正。30年的中國新歷史，性觀念、性行為、性媒介，在頑固的保守間曲折地進步。
我們正處於影像影響世界的時代。以影像直擊的方式總結與回顧30年以來中國同性戀議題的發展。追蹤記錄30年以來在同性戀平權活動中親歷歷史的人物，展現歷史重要變革事件，譬如中國同性戀非罪化、非病化，譬如中國人同性戀觀念變化與媒體的正面報導，譬如中國有關同性戀立法、學術研究、文學創作與發表、藝術產品與展示方面的成績，譬如性學界、醫學界和同性戀社群聯手抗擊AIDS。
用一部長篇電影，訪問親歷中國30年LGBT觀念及生活變遷的30餘位知名人士，及時地記錄和保存歷史，以探討現在，以開拓未來。
以下，是影片重點拍攝與關注的議題---學術出版：從翻譯，到社會學研究，到學術草根化；性學研究：從「無性時代」，到「開放的性」，到「一胎化時代」；法律與法規：從非法，到不非法，到合法化呼籲；性別政治：從「無名」，到「隱身」，到「現身」；經濟：從統一供給式到「粉紅經濟」；精神衛生與健康：從「病態說」到「非病化」；文化與傳媒：從虛無到熱點；文學與藝術：從地下，到公開出版，到播客；社區生活：從隱秘到公開。

映後座談會
主持：彭麗君（香港中文大學文化及宗教研究系教授）
嘉賓：崔子恩（《誌同志》導演）、
梁兆輝（香港電台《自己人》節目主持人）、
江紹祺（香港大學社會學系助理教授）、
楊宜瑄（香港中文大學文化及宗教研究系導師）

Informal Meeting with CC Artists from the Philippines - Drip

One of the presenter at the second Asia Pacific Creative Commons Conference, “The Commons Crossroads: Defining the Roadmap for Creative Commons in Asia and the Pacific”, Drip, will be performing in Hong Kong at the HK Live monthly event on Sat, 7 Mar 2009.

On the Sunday after the performance, the band would like to share how they made themselves famous and collaborated with other musicians worldwide through licensing their works under Creative Commons and distributing them using different online tools such as ccMixter.

Date: 8 Mar 2009 Sunday
Time: 2:30-4:30pm
Venue: Whiskey Priest - 1/F, 12 Lan Kwai Fong, Central

Winner for “Networked: a (networked_book) about (networked_art)”

the winners of our international juried competition, “Networked: a (networked_book) about (networked_art)”. They are, ANNE HELMOND, PATRICK LICHTY, ANNA MUNSTER, MARISA OLSON, and KAZYS VARNELIS.

Each will receive a commission of $3,000 to develop a chapter that will be open for revision, commentary, and translation. “Networked” will launch on July 1, 2009.

The runners-up are Ele Carpenter, Christine Nadir, Mark Shepard, and Jason Freeman.

NETWORKED COMMITTEE: Steve Dietz (Northern Lights, MN) :: Martha CC Gabriel (net artist, Brazil) :: Geert Lovink (Institute for Network Cultures, The Netherlands) :: Nick Montfort (Massachusetts Institute for Technology, MA) :: Anne Bray (LA Freewaves, LA) :: Sean Dockray (Telic Arts Exchange, LA) :: Jo-Anne Green (NRPA, MA) :: Eduardo Navas (newmediaFIX) :: Helen Thorington (NRPA, NY)

NETWORKED PARTNERS: New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (NRPA) :: newmediaFIX :: LA Freewaves :: Telic Arts Exchange.

LAUNCH EVENTS: Digicult :: Freewaves :: Re:live 09 :: Telic Arts Exchange :: Upgrade! Boston :: your name here (contact jo@turbulence.org).

More information is available here:
http://turbulence.org/networked/guidelines.html

what is web 2.0 now?

“Today's web is radically different from three or four years ago. The web's centre of gravity has shifted from being a source of broadcast information to a platform for dynamic conversations,” says Rohan Gunatillake in "Mission 2.0: advice for arts & cultural organisations from the social web"

ELECTRONIC VISUALISATION AND THE ARTS -CALL FOR PAPERS

*Monday 6th - Wednesday 8th July 2009*
CALL FOR PAPERS
**Visualising* *
ideas and concepts in culture, heritage and the arts: digital arts, sound, music, film and animation, 2D and 3D imaging, European projects, archaeology, architecture, social media for museums, heritage and fine art photography, computer arts

OFFERS OF PAPERS, DEMONSTRATIONS, WORKSHOPS by 31 January 2009

/EVA London 2009 will be co-sponsored by the Computer Arts Society, a Special Interest Group of the British Computer Society, and by the BCS. /

We invite offers of papers. For proposals we require only a summary of the paper on not more than one page. It must be submitted electronically according to the instructions on the EVA London website.

Papers may be on any aspect of EVA London's focus on visualisation for the arts and culture, broadly interpreted, including technology, use and users, creative, visual and performing arts and music, strategy,organisational implications and policy.Papers are peer reviewed and may be edited. They will be published as hard copy and online.

We hope to offer bursaries again to attend EVA London for those who do
not have access to grants.

***********************************************************
EVA London 2009's conference themes will include, but are not limited to:

* Enabling the arts through digital technologies
* Crossing disciplinary boundaries
* Visualising ideas and concepts
* Moving and still images in museums and galleries
* Web 2.0 technologies in cultural heritage organizations
* Digital and computational arts
* Sound, music, film and animation
* 2D and 3D imaging
* Virtual and augmented worlds
* Fine art and photography
* Interactive technologies

Research into the uses of museum stored collections:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/storedcollections/

PUBLIC" NETBASE: NON STOP FUTURE, New practices in Art and Media" Out Now

New book about Public Netbase t0, edited by New Media Center_kuda.org and published by Revolver.

Published 2008
ISBN: 978-3-86588-455-8
http://t0.or.at/nonstopfuture/

New information technologies have become ubiquitous and thoroughly established in our everyday lives. This marks the end of a period of intense experimentation and speculations related to the introduction of global communication systems more than a decade ago. Artists and cultural workers were the first to explore their liberatory dimensions and to apply their emancipatory potentials. These early pioneers developed a range of interdisciplinary models and practices in order to expand the scope of social participation in information society cultures. Initiatives like the radical Viennese mediaculture institution Public Netbase became important nodes in a global network dedicated to critical art, culture and science based on new media practices.
A virtual world is possible, but never without real spaces and tangible social interaction. This publication is both a review of the pioneer days from the perspective of Public Netbase as well as an outlook into the future of art and culture in digital networks. It provides an overview of a critical information economy discourse, insights into Tactical Media strategies and a critique of the loss of public domain and the commons. Based on the extensive archives of Public Netbase, the book features some of the most spectacular and controversial art projects and interventions from 1994 to 2006. It also offers historical documents and manifestos critical of commercialisation and control society issues, together with a view into the digital world of tomorrow. "Non Stop Future" raises awareness for a need to invest in new and diverse practices in art and media.

Extensive contributions from many art and media theorists and practitioners to this book relate to long lasting collaboration with Public Netbase through different formats of conferences and projects, reflecting some of the most relevant problematics in constellation of art and tactical media practices and theories within communication technologies. The broad spectrum of themes regarding politics of digital media culture, art practices, networking, participation and self-organizing make the “Non Stop Future” an important contribution to forming the critical digital heritage of the future.

NASA hunts for its rubber ducks

photo: (CC) Gaetan Lee
Sailors, fishermen and cruise passengers should be on the alert. If anybody spots a yellow rubber duck bobbing on the ocean waves, Nasa would like to know.

The US space agency has yet to find any trace of 90 bathtub toys that were dropped through holes in Greenland's ice three months ago in an effort to track the way the Arctic icecap is melting. Scientists threw the ducks into tubular holes known as "moulins" in the Jakobshavn glacier on Greenland's west coast, hoping they would find their way into channels beneath the hard-packed surface, to track the flow of melt water into the ocean.
News

oh can't believe someone did it, my microwave greeting

SIGGRAPH announces the call for Art Papers for SIGGRAPH 2009, taking place 3-7 August in New Orleans, Louisiana

via
SIGGRAPH encourages paper submissions on topics that explore the creation of art and its place in society, helping people understand the changing roles of artists and art creation in the increasingly computerized, online world. The papers should present challenging ideas in accessible ways with the goal of informing artistic disciplines, setting standards, and stimulating future trends. In addition to the core topics of the digital arts and interactive techniques, Art Papers will also be accepted on the theme of the SIGGRAPH 2009 juried art gallery, BioLogic Art. Art Papers submissions will be accepted through 8 January 2009 at 22:00 UTC/GMT.

New this year, SIGGRAPH will collaborate with Leonardo, (The Journal of the International Society of the Arts, Sciences and Technology) to publish a special issue specifically highlighting SIGGRAPH 2009 Art Papers. Publication of this special issue will coincide with SIGGRAPH 2009, and will also include visual documentation of works exhibited in BioLogic Art.

"SIGGRAPH concerns itself with the innovation and education crossroads of art, science, and technology," stated Jacquelyn Martino, SIGGRAPH 2009 Art Papers Chair from IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. "So, naturally we are thrilled to collaborate with Leonardo in the publication of this year's Art Papers. We hope to further emphasize the process and research behind the creation of art in today's digital world as well as its greater impact on our society and culture."

Art Papers at SIGGRAPH 2009 will be presented in 20-minute sessions by their authors, with the opportunity for participants to pose questions following the presentations. A full schedule of accepted Art Papers will be available online in May 2009.

For complete details on the SIGGRAPH 2009 Art Papers program, including submission information and deadlines, visit http://www.siggraph.org/s2009/submissions/art_papers/index.php.

For information on this year's conference or to download a copy of the SIGGRAPH 2009 Preview Video visit www.siggraph.org/s2009

What is the future of cash or a world without cash?

kashklash:: exchanging the future

It is another project from fiction writer Bruce Sterling and many others, like "we-make-money-not art" Regine Debatty and Irene Cassarino, the manager of the online collaborative cinema project "A Swarm of angels".

Interesting blogging ...